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Offering what it calls Banking-as-a-Platform, FinLeap, the German fintech ‘startup factory’, has hatched its latest venture.

This time the Berlin-based company builder (to use the preferred terminology) is investing and betting on the underlying regulatory and financial technology infrastructure — the picks ‘n’ shovels, if you will — in the form of solarisBank, a fully licensed digital bank designed to power an array of fintech services.

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As 2015 came to a close and the new year began, many thought leaders in the financial technology space made their predictions on the trends and innovations that will get us excited in 2016.

One of the most prominent technologies that repeatedly appeared on these lists was the blockchain. More familiarly known as the technology behind the bitcoin digital currency, blockchain has emerged from the shadows of bitcoin with a new, solo image.

"Traditionally, entrepreneurs have raised money in old-boy networks, typically in San Francisco or New York," says CircleUp CEO Ryan Caldbeck. From CircleUp's start in 2012, it has aimed to help entrepreneurs bypass this network—instead providing an online marketplace that connects consumer-product startups with accredited investors who can make investments through its platform. "On CircleUp, [who you know] is not what’s important," Caldbeck says. "We have the network. We give the network to everyone."

FINANCIAL SERVICES FIRMS FEAR FINTECH. The global financial services industry is being disrupted by fintech, and executives at financial institutions fear losing a quarter of their business to new players by 2020, according to PWC.